JAKARTA, 22 June 2018 – The ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity (ACB), with support from the European Union, calls on all photography and nature enthusiasts to join this year’s staging of the Zooming in on Biodiversity, an ASEAN-wide photo competition promoting appreciation for biodiversity richness of the ASEAN region through the art of photography.
Commemorating the 2018 International Day for Biological Diversity with the theme “Celebrating 25 Years of Action for Biodiversity,” ACB is in search for powerful photographs related to the following biodiversity areas: coastal and marine biodiversity; agrobiodiversity; wildlife species; urban biodiversity; and wetlands and peatlands.
The overall theme of the contest is “Capturing the richness of biological resources in the ASEAN region”. The contest is a major initiative under the ACB and European Union (EU) Biodiversity Conservation and Management of Protected Areas in ASEAN (BCAMP) Project.
Cash prizes and opportunities for their photos to get published in major ACB publications and exhibits await the winners. Registration to the contest is free of charge and is open to all citizens of the ASEAN region—Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Viet Nam.
The contest was held for the first time 2009 with the theme “Biodiversity and Me”. It generated close to 1,000 entries from youth, amateur, and professional photographers from all ASEAN Member States. The submissions captured not only various plant and animal species, but also featured the connection of biodiversity to issues such as climate change, food security, livelihood, and health. These images helped boost the promotion of the values of biodiversity among various audiences.
“Biodiversity and Climate Change” was the theme for the second staging of the contest in 2013. It helped draw public attention to the challenge of climate change, and to the need for both global and local action to address this issue.
In 2015, the contest was held for the third time under the theme “Biodiversity for Sustainable Development” to communicate ways on how to achieve the balance between development and biodiversity conservation. The contest was in line with the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Aichi Target 1, which states that “…by 2020, at the latest, people are aware of the values of biodiversity and the steps they can take to conserve and use it sustainably.”
The ACB was established in 2005 by the ASEAN Member States as a response to the challenge of biodiversity loss in the region. The centre supports and coordinates the implementation of activities in the ASEAN leading to the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, for the benefit of the region and the AMS.
For more information on the contest, please visit www.aseanbiodiversity.org/zoomingin.
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